Embodiments disclosed herein relate to payment systems. In particular, some embodiments relate to methods, apparatus, systems, means and computer program products for performing wireless authorization of payment card transactions in a payment system.
The basic flow of payment card transactions for the last twenty years has been substantially unchanged. A payment card transaction begins when a cardholder presents a payment card (such as a credit card or debit card) to a merchant to complete a purchase transaction. The merchant either swipes a magnetic stripe on the card through a point of sale (“POS”) device or otherwise enters payment card data (including, for example, the card number and expiration date) into a transaction terminal. The payment card data and transaction details (including the purchase amount) are transmitted from the transaction terminal to a transaction acquiring financial institution or processor (the “acquirer”). The acquirer either approves the transaction (e.g., by applying one or more stand in processing rules established by the payment card account issuer) or routes the transaction to the payment card account issuer (the “issuer”) based on the payment card data.
In the situation where the acquirer is able to approve the transaction, the acquirer assigns an authorization or approval code to the transaction and returns an approval to the merchant via the transaction terminal and the purchase is completed. The acquirer settles with the issuer based on the transaction details and the authorization code.
In the situation where the acquirer is not able to approve the transaction, the issuer reviews the transaction details and payment card details and issues an approval or denial. If the transaction is approved, an authorization code is assigned to the transaction and is routed back to the merchant via the acquirer and the transaction terminal. In some situations, the transaction flow between the acquirer and the issuer is via a payment association network, such as MasterCard International's “BankNet” network. However, not all such transactions go through a payment association network. For example, currently, only about 40% of MasterCard® payment card transactions are routed through the BankNet network. It would be desirable to ensure that a greater number of such payment card transactions are processed by the payment card association.